Plymouth was a small community, linked by religion and by participation in town meeting.  Twice-weekly religious services and civic meetings alike were held in the meetinghouse.

The church was congregational: each congregation was independent (the original congregations divided several times).  There was no toleration for other church and the Court could send dissenters away.

Roger Williams left Plymouth over religious disagreements and founded the tolerant "Providence Plantations."  In the 1650s and 1660s, Plymouth Colony exiled Quakers.